A Press Democrat Blog

Lowell Cohn's pertinent and impertinent take on sports

Going into the final day of the British Open Tiger Woods was in pretty good shape but he loused up his final round and ended up a non-factor. For several years now, he has established a pattern in majors — stay close and then flop on the final day. I know he leads the money list and he’s still a good golfer, but can we say he’s a choker in the majors? Is it unfair to apply the word choker… Read More »

Here is the opening to my Tuesday column: Tiger Woods is Mike Tyson, and Mike Tyson is Tiger Woods. This is not to suggest Woods and Tyson have the same personality. Tyson was a thug who went to the slammer for rape, although he seems kind of lovable now. And Woods has a thin Stanford veneer from the minute or two he spent on the Farm. And Woods, for the most part, has controlled his public image in ways Tyson… Read More »

I don’t play golf, am not familiar with all the rules, so I have some questions about Tiger Woods’ transgression. Please help me. Should Woods have known better than to drop the ball where he did? Was he trying to cheat? Is it right that he got penalized two shots after the fact? Should he have been disqualified? Should he have disqualified himself?

Tiger Woods had a bad round today and finished third in the British Open. Third is good, but we notice Woods seems to collapse a lot on the final day of tournaments. Why is it he plays well for three days and washes out on the fourth? Can someone explain?

Here is the opening to my Sunday column about the faltering Tiger Woods at the US Open: SAN FRANCISCO You can’t exactly say Tiger Woods choked. You can’t say he choked even though he shot six bogies on Saturday, bogeyed two of his last three holes like some amateur who’d been invited to play the Open on a lark, even though he came into Saturday’s play tied for the lead at 1 under and left mired in a pack, a… Read More »

Here is the opening to my Friday column about the golf threesome — Tiger Woods, Bubba Watson and Phil Mickelson: SAN FRANCISCO The world stopped at 7:33 Thursday morning. Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson were approaching the tee at the ninth hole of the U.S. Open at the Olympic Club — it was their first hole. And the entire planet, at least the crowd at the Olympic, was in a state of pure anticipation. The air was… Read More »

Here is the opening to my Thursday column on Phil Mickelson which really is a compare and contrast of him and Tiger Woods. Hey, I was an English major. SAN FRANCISCO When reporters interviewed Tiger Woods at the Olympic Club this week, they mostly asked about him. But when reporters interviewed Phil Mickelson, they mostly asked about him and Tiger. It’s as though Mickelson exists in a binary universe, a Tiger/Phil universe in which Mickelson is the lesser star, overwhelmed… Read More »

Here is the opening to my Wednesday column about Tiger Woods: SAN FRANCISCO Tiger Woods had just gone full snippy in a Tuesday news conference. He tries to act nice, he really does, but full snippy is right below the surface. A reporter asked the obvious question, the key question of U.S. Open Week: Does he have to win a major to prove he’s a great golfer again? “I think even if I do win a major championship,” Woods replied,… Read More »

Is Tiger Woods turning into a choker? He can make all the shots, at least it seems that way. But he choked at the AT&T and he sure seemed to choke at the Masters on Friday. When he kicked his club it wasn’t rude like some people wrote. Baseball players do worse things all the time. But kicking the club meant he had lost his cool, lost his composure, his focus, whatever you want to call it. And that’s part… Read More »